The history of a great hardrock band, excelling in the 70s

2008-today

And how are things today approximately exactly in this century?

And then it was 2008 ... These were, in May that year, the last words devoted to the history of LAVA. Thereafter it became deafening silence, well at least regarding this subject. The recent years, however, have been exciting enough to share. Or, like the reunion concert was labelled, Breaking Silence.
We’re taking care of that here and right now!

First public gig in 32 years
In the period right after that legendary reunion concert in 2008, rehearsing continued. Not very often, but vigorously indeed. During one of these sessions – in February 2010 – LAVA received a well-known visitor; René Rijsdijk. The legendary guitarist of ‘Bodine’, even brought his guitar and an amplifier. Very remarkable, because Rijsdijk remained aloof from any happening in the heavy and loud music scenes since his withdrawal from mentioned Bodine.
Unfortunately, all this stayed a ‘once only’.

Bodine’s ‘Founding Fathers’                                       This would have been very, very spectacular ..... for various reasons

Shortly later that year, 6 May, the very first public gig after 32 years was announced. In beach pavilion ‘La Cantina’ in Scheveningen the windows were, into the wind, ball played.

 
‘Zuiderstrand’ of Scheveningen; La Cantina



Farewell
Real quick thereafter, June 9th, another ‘private’ gig was on the agenda. Regrettably, this one also turned out to be the last one with Gerard Haitsma in LAVA’s line-up. The rock-solid drummer had become a much wanted engineer in the world of ‘kart racing’. For that reason, it was increasingly difficult for him to be back in time on behalf of the, already not too numerous, rehearsals.
After that performance, he had to wave the towel. Painful that was. For him and LAVA an exciting piece of LAVA history ended, now for the second time, abruptly!
Gerard Haitsma then, delivered twice a World Champion in his beloved sport. That fact not only softened the pain. He also confirmed his name and fame in the world of kart racing and he had proofed to have made ​the correct choice after all.

Remy Kueter & Frank de Vries
On 10 October 2010 Remy Kueter made his debut in the rehearsal room. It’s really unbelievable how incredibly quick Remy secured the set lists. At the end of the very first rehearsal evening, a two and half hour session, he mastered 12 compositions. Flawless!
At the very end of the same year (December, 12th), Frank de Vries re-joined LAVA after 34 years! He learned from John Mendels, that his former band was exploring the hardrock world again and he was eager to be part of all this for a second time and to contribute unlimited like he did in the 70s of the previous century. At that point in time, LAVA accommodated the very first and the final guitarist from ‘those days’. Unique! Of course, LAVA took advantage of having two guitarists in the line-up now. New opportunities regarding the various compositions of the set lists opened-up. Consequently, many of the compositions received a new interpretation. New own songs were written, composed, arranged and practised as well.


Enormous experience, however, making their debuts ‘here’ and ‘here again’ respectively

JJ Music House
Half a year later, on 12 May 2011 to be precise, LAVA was ready to go again. If you have a look at it, it does sound like a fairly large time span. However, the band only rehearses once a month on average. So, playing down the ceiling in two hour and a half sessions, after five practise possibilities only, is quite an achievement!
That evening in Zoetermeer turned into a very memorable one. Those who could not attend, still hear today what they have missed on that occasion!


Memorable, one huge recognition party.
Showing our appreciation, this poster has been printed, framed and granted to JJ Music House

Kaderock
Less than a month later, Kaderock in The Hague followed. Kaderock is one of the yearly ‘festivals’ in the Residential City and has always a varied program on their ‘outdoors’ and ‘indoors’ stages. LAVA was lucky enough to have been scheduled ‘inside’. On 11 June, it was raining cats and dogs. Everyone fled inside and LAVA blew them warm and dry in no time!
Ferry Bovet’s review says it all: “Hey, did LAVA start early? In front of a overcrowded concert-room, the band is busy performing. Thunderous applause is following. ‘Sorry folks, this was a sound check’, one of them revealed.” It further reads: “The riffs are heavy, the twin solo’s cheerful and sometimes you’ll take note of a bluesy harmonica. The set list is a variation of own compositions and covers of, amongst others, Tom Petty and The Beatles. LAVA’s own work has withstood the test of time extremely well!” Check the ‘Reviews’ tab in ‘Multimedia’ (Dutch only).

Even the sound check was followed by a thunderous round of applause

Extraordinary event and a great show after all
Then it remains silent for almost a year. Well, at least, as far as stages are concerned. When the next gig is on, we are writing 5 June 2012. Not so much the location, that one was already known for a while. And even the absence of Frank de Vries wasn’t a reason to have this show called off. This private party got a remarkable twist due to a very unusual reason.
It appeared that Remy had contracted a food poisoning earlier that day and that stuff was already developing into a different kind of volcanic outbreak for a while. Half an hour prior to the kick-off all that finally resulted in an eruption indeed. Remy wasn’t able to hold a thing. Let alone drumsticks!

The ever persistent drummer was obliged to withdraw completely and even had to be brought to a hospital! Now what? A jam session with musicians from other bands attending, or something like that?
Help, however, was close at hand and came from an unexpected and, at that point in time, still unknown angle. Buddy Willem de Jong, like the undersigned keen on boasting LAVA’s qualities, had brought in one of his pals. A real hardrock lover. That friend wanted to check, witness and hear everything we’d claimed by himself. His complete experience regarding this night is written down in his own biography. The end of the story; this guy Ronnie van Vliet killed two birds with one stone! There was no need to disappoint the organisation and the situation turned into a great show after all. This only, after the message ‘Remy OK’ had reached the troops!


The Ronnie-James-Dio-from-behind-the-dunes; @ work in his kitchen

Tandem; No wheels, snares instead

Overcrowded
At the end of that summer, LAVA once again were guests at JJ Music House. On 14 September, the place was overcrowded once more. This time in the ‘new’ House, about 100 meters further down in the ‘Van Tuyllpark’ in Zoetermeer (Sweet Lake City?).
The pictures below are, actually, telling the story. Dynamics, devotion, passion, fire, rock wrapped in an iron-hard sound. You have to undergo LAVA, it’s as simple as that!

Exclusive and a Farewell once again
It took almost another year before the Band was able to execute on stage again. Performing not more than occasionally is certainly not meant to keep things exclusive. Certainly not. John Mendels and Frank de Vries are professional artists, both dealing with bulging agendas. Consequently, ‘Live on stage’ planning isn’t that easy. However, everybody still like it. Consequently, LAVA performs “not as frequently as we would like, but as often as possible!”
Also on this U.S. National Holiday, 4th of July, this occasion the one of 2013, JJ Music House was hosting LAVA. A simple copy/paste action would have been sufficient, if Remy wouldn’t have announced that this forthcoming gig would be his final trick in LAVA’s line-up!
Not funny at all! The band not only had to say ‘goodbye’ to a fantastically skilled drummer. Also outside ‘the box’ Remy Kueter fitted the Team perfectly! In contradiction to standard behaviour within the music industry, LAVA proved that it really is possible to divorce in a decent way. Right after his final hit, the band publicly thanked him for having had a great time and sharing productive years. A really exclusive bottle, including an extraordinary content, should have been present at that occasion. Of course it was!
Unfortunately, no pictures of this gig are available. However, a video, produced by Photologist Ben Kruijt, is! Click <video> right below 'Multimedia' in the navigation part, at the top left side, of this website. Just hit the <play> button of the second video and almost an hour of 'old school' hard rock follows. Enjoy!

Line-up complete again
Shortly after the holidays, the line-up was complemented again. Worse! The crew suddenly counted a musician extra! Also due to the unexpected happenings two years earlier, Ronnie van Vliet was now the very first choice in succeeding Remy Kueter. Although he is well known as a phenomenal vocalist for some decades now, he expressed a solid “Yes” upon requested to take over this drum job. If you wanna know what kind of swings the ‘Ronnie-James-Dio-behind-the-dunes’ took prior to his new position, please, take note of his biography which is to be found in the corresponding tab at the top left side of this website, or click here.
On 16 September he stuck his head around the corner of the rehearsal room for the very first time. Almost immediately followed by François Wesselink. A couple of weeks earlier, this experienced keyboard player walked into John Mendels’ concrete posture. Somewhere on their way to this point in time, both shared a short but collective musical adventure. Some 15 years later, all that resulted in all this; LAVA welcomed a keyboard artist, for the first time in its history!

 
Again, tremendous experience combined, but, for a couple seconds, ‘rookies’ nevertheless



Another ‘goodbye’ completion remained
The rehearsal session of 6 January 2014, turned out to be the final one having Frank de Vries on board. Frank is a professional musician having a wide scope of interests. An all-rounder on top of that. In this period, Frank had numerous projects running in parallel and even interchangeably. He reached a point, needing to get rid of, at least some, ballast. Although Frank is a real professional musician – and being a part of LAVA just for the sheer fun of it – also this farewell was hard to digest. Like Gerard Haitsma, also Frank de Vries had played a solid part in LAVA’s history of the previous century. When teaming-up comes to a closure, in those cases, it hurts. Also because it had been an own, voluntary, decision, these painful moments do fade away. It takes a while, but still.

 
LAVA’s shortly existing line-up of 6!

Looking back, one could say that, accidentally all these developments closed a short, but slightly chaotic period. Double appointments, sick LAVA staff and sad family circumstances caused semi failures regarding a few successive rehearsal sessions.
Fortunately, the fun factor remained upright! The current line-up is ready to go. A few more rehearsal sessions and the world will get to know LAVA 3.0!




Sjouwers = dockhands, deckhands, caddies, sherpa's, whatever
The two slightly older buddies are still there too, no degeneration noticeable .... we think

Line-up Summary

And in this way we have reached June 2019 .....
Han Hijzelendoorn